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Hiding engine bay wiring, tips, methods?

44K views 5 replies 5 participants last post by  Ripped 
#1 ·
Been hanging around the bodywork forum for a good long while, but the 'stang should come back with the engine bay painted in a week and a half.

Next step will be installing wiring harnesses, brake and fuel lines.

I am going to hide the wring in the engine bay. Some of you might have done this already, and have some suggestions.

What did you do to extend or shorten wiring?
How did you deal with one wire type alternators?
Where did you hide relays, ignition boxes etc?

Much of the wiring I have will be run inside the front frame rails.

Thanks
 
#2 ·
I did this years ago on a 71 Olds 442. I had installed a tilt front end and wanted to hide all the wiring. Like you, I elected to run the harness inside the frame rails. GMs use a large firewall connector and I moved this to the side of the cowl where it was hidden behind the lower part of the fender (that remained in place when the rest of the front end tilted forward). Since I had removed the wipers (hey, I was living in SoCal at the time), I mounted relays and related equipment in the cowl area that feeds the heater. There was some wiring that could not be eliminated (alternator, temp sender, electric choke) so I dressed these as neatly as I could and held them with p-clamps.
 
#3 ·
On my camaro I made some brackets to fit under the dash for relays ect.
then ran the wiring and lines through a grommeted hole in the firewall just
below the dist. hole in the block or in the area of the top of the bell housing.
Wire for the one wire was ran with several others along the edge of the oil pan, held in place with p clamps. Don't forget to hide the wires if possible on a ford. Check my album for some pictures of my eng. compartment.
 
#4 ·
I normally hide engine bay wiring when I wire a streetrod, just try to organize the wiring groups first while the engine is out,ex.-distributor,oil+temp senders,starter...ect. if you run the headlights,turn signals,electric fan, and horn wires in the sub frame of the stang, that will clean up the inner fender wells, move the starter solenoid to the inside of the firewall and run the starter wires thru a grommet close to the bottom of the firewall, the alternator and distributor wires are hardest to hide, as they are on the front of the motor,avoid having them hang in the air between the inner fender well and the engine. wiring can look very custom if you run the wires in a group,all staying in line,with a zip tie every 2 inches the entire length of the engine,secured to standoffs on the valve cover or off the intake manifold bolts, just remember,anything you hide,you WILL HAVE TO FIND TO FIX LATER!! :pimp:
 
#5 ·
Here's something I made up for my temp sender and fan switch. Just a simple piece of tubing mounted with line clamps. The clamps are held in place by using 2 threaded bosses next to the carb. A 3 conductor weatherpack connector will be added at the firewall end of the tube.
 

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#6 ·
Nice tips, thanks guys.

One of the things I had considered was getting a small relay box from modern car with the wiring harness and locating that in the engine compartment where the battery normally is in this car (trunk relocate)

I could have a stainless steel box made up (with a lid) 1/2 to 3/4 the size of the battery, locate any new relays, voltage regulators, soleniods, msd boxes inside there all neat and tidy

What do you think?
 
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